in state prison with a long term of years to serve. In that lonely cell
a picture hung over his cot that carried his mind away over the country
to the sunny Californian village where she, whose face smiled down upon
him, prayed still for her boy, knowing nothing of this last disgrace.
After enduring silence for some time, his longing for letters from home
compelled him to write, but he hid the fact of his imprisonment, giving
the prison number of the street as the place where he was working.
It happened however that a friend left their home village to visit
in New York state, and he was commissioned by the mother to see her
boy. Inquiring for the street and number in Sing Sing, he found the
prison, so that sad news winged its way to the distant home. Through
this trial the mother's love stood firm, and the most tender, helpful
letters came month after month to the little cell where time passed
all too drearily. When this boy took his stand for God and became
a Christian, he wrote the news home, and very shortly I received a
long, loving letter from his mother. She rejoiced in the change that
had come to her boy and then asked all about his prison life and
surroundings, begging me to watch over him and to be to him as far as
possible what she would be, if she were near enough to visit him. For
two years we corresponded, and I had much good news to tell her of the
boy's earnest, faithful life. Once we met and I shall never forget
that mother's face and words. I had been having a heavy programme of
engagements in San Francisco and was resting between the meetings.
The news came that two ladies wanted to speak to me, and I sent my
secretary to explain that I was very weary and had to rest. She came
back in a few moments to tell me their names, and at once I went to
them, realizing that it was the mother and sister of that "boy" in Sing
Sing. When I entered the room I found a truly beautiful young girl with
a sweet, refined face, and a dear old lady dressed in widow's weeds.
As she rose to greet me, the words died on her lips and she could only
sob, "Oh, you've seen my boy, my boy!" When she was calmer she told me
she had come forty miles that day to meet me. She had been ill in bed
and her daughters tried to dissuade her from the effort, but she said,
"I could not stay away; I think it would have killed me to miss this
chance of seeing one who had seen my boy." Then she began to talk of
him in the tender intimate way only a mother can talk. She asked me
many questions that were difficult to answer: just how he looked, what
they gave him to eat, what his cell was like, what work he had to do,
etc. When we parted, she put her hands on my shoulders and kissed me
saying, "Oh, you have lifted such a heavy, heavy burden from my heart,"
while the sister added, "There was an empty place in our home we never
expected to have filled again, but you have brought us the assurance
that our boy will soon be there with us again." As I turned back again
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